March 1: McDonald Observatory, Fort Davis, TX

Welcome to one of the darkest places in the lower forty-eight... the McDonald Observatory! Because it is so dark here, high up (at around 6,000 feet) and remote, it is an excellent spot to observe the night sky. The observatory houses three telescopes: one with a reflecting surface 107" across, built in the late 1960's (the solid, tan telescope), a smaller one with a reflecting surface of 82", built in the 1930's (the open-framework telescope), and a gigantic one with a reflecting surface 10 meters in diameter! Scientists can learn all kinds of things using these telescope, like whether there are other earth-like planets and sun-like stars in outer space, and how far away they are.